Friday, August 4, 2017

BLUE SKIES AND BUFFALOES

Actually Aug 3:

Still in Cooke City. There's a haze in the air from forest fires to our west.

Yesterday We took a pretty strenuous (UP-hill) hike to some meadows in the northeast corner of the park.

Yellowstone Park, incidentally, is big.  Very roughly, it's about sixty miles miles north to south and nearly as many east to west. It's famous, of course for its geysers and hot springs. These, apparently, are the result of enormous volcanic eruptions over 60,000 years ago.

And the volcanoes could erupt again, any time between tomorrow and, say, 60,000 more years from now.  If it blows tomorrow, you'll probably hear about it, though not from us.

Great hike today on a path called the Prospect Ridge Trail.  It overlooks the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone river.  Beautiful views all around.

Followed that up with an ice cream float at the Stop the Car!  Trading Post, in Silver Gate, which is even smaller than Cooke City.

On our way to today's hike we rode parallel to the Lamar River. It flows through a huge wide valley that's mostly sagebrush. A few hundred bison (buffalo) live along this section and are easily seen from the road. Many cars were pulled over to see the herds and take photos. 

In the evening you will often see coyotes hanging around with the bison in the Lamar Valley. But they are not a threat to them as the bison are so much bigger. The coyotes are looking for much smaller meals

It's 5 pm right now, temperature around 65, a cool breeze is blowing and the sky, like the old song says, was not cloudy all day.

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